Articles

Great Carbon Bazaar

“Great Carbon Bazaar” reported by BBC News, 4 June 2008, and BBC World Service, “One Planet”, 5 June 2008. The BBC World Service has investigated three projects that are funded by carbon credit system, which takes money paid by companies in developed countries and funds projects in developing countries that are claimed to cut greenhouse emissions. According to the report, “The credits are generated by a United Nations-run scheme called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The mechanism gives firms in developing countries financial incentives to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But in some cases, carbon credits are paid to projects that would have been realised without external funding.”

The BBC looked at three projects in India, a biomass generator that runs on rice husks, an incinerator for burning off HFC23 and a hydroelectric scheme, all of which would have happened anyway. They go on to comment: “Trade in CDM carbon credits is running at some $10bn a year. That is a welcome flow of resources from the developed to the developing world. But it is far from clear that the trade in credits is contributing much to tackling global warming.”

Editorial Comment: It is a good Biblical principle that the rich help the poor, but extracting funds from the rich by deception is not. Projects like the ones described above may be good for the environment, and an efficient use of resources, but that is no excuse for them to take money because the UN thinks it can prevent global warming. The idea that man-made emissions are changing the climate is not proven, and is therefore no basis for imposing taxes, charges and regulations. Creation Research is not alone is saying this. A recent meeting of scientists, economists and policy makers has put out the “Manhattan Declaration” which begins with the following statements:

“We, the scientists and researchers in climate and related fields, economists, policymakers, and business leaders, assembled at Times Square, New York City, participating in the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change, Resolving that scientific questions should be evaluated solely by the scientific method; Affirming that global climate has always changed and always will, independent of the actions of humans, and that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant but rather a necessity for all life; Recognising that the causes and extent of recently-observed climatic change are the subject of intense debates in the climate science community and that oft-repeated assertions of a supposed ‘consensus’ among climate experts are false; Affirming that attempts by governments to legislate costly regulations on industry and individual citizens to encourage CO2 emission reduction will slow development while having no appreciable impact on the future trajectory of global climate change. Such policies will markedly diminish future prosperity and so reduce the ability of societies to adapt to inevitable climate change, thereby increasing, not decreasing human suffering;

Noting that warmer weather is generally less harmful to life on Earth than colder: Hereby declare:

That current plans to restrict anthropogenic CO2 emissions are a dangerous misallocation of intellectual capital and resources that should be dedicated to solving humanity’s real and serious problems. That there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change.

That attempts by governments to inflict taxes and costly regulations on industry and individual citizens with the aim of reducing emissions of CO2 will pointlessly curtail the prosperity of the West and progress of developing nations without affecting climate.

That adaptation as needed is massively more cost-effective than any attempted mitigation, and that a focus on such mitigation will divert the attention and resources of governments away from addressing the real problems of their peoples. That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis.”